THE PROJECT

WHAT IS AGROFOOD BIC

A collaborative initiative between Granarolo S.p.A., Gellify S.r.l., Camst Soc. Coop. A r.l., Conserve Italia S.c.A., Cuniola Società Agricola A r.l., Eurovo S.r.l. has led to the formation of Agrofood BIC S.r.l. (BIC standing for Business Innovation Center), a cross-company innovation hub on a national and international level and designed to seize and promote important business opportunities, using transversal methods to encompass multiple interests.

The shared and clearly defined objective is to create an accelerator for promising and innovative start-ups in the food&beverage and agri-industrial sectors, including the entire “from farm to fork” supply chain and associated businesses.

Agrofood BIC S.r.l. will support promising start-ups by helping them to convert their ideas into concrete entrepreneurial initiatives, helping to resolve all organisational, operational and strategic initiatives. It will promote relationships between new businesses, the world of work and investors, combining acceleration services with specific skills aimed at launching the business concept on the market. It will also support the initial development of the start-ups by providing them with pilot operations, R&D support, business development services, marketing and accounting assistance, support from professionals and consultants, access to networks in the business and credit industries, as well as dedicated offices, shared spaces and IT facilities.

 

Three institutions are involved in the development of the new accelerator:

  • THE UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA
  • ENEA the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
  • ASTER, the Regional Consortium for Research and Innovation. 

Granarolo

The Granarolo Group, one of the leading operators in the Italian agri-food industry, comprises two different yet synergetic companies: a cooperative of milk producers, Granlatte, which operates in the agricultural sector and collects the raw materials, and a public limited company, Granarolo S.p.A., which processes and commercialises the finished product and boasts fifteen production sites in Italy, two in France, three in Brazil, one in New Zealand and one in the United Kingdom. The Granarolo Group is the most important Italian milk supply chain to directly represent its associated producers as part of a cooperative. The Group's mission outside Italy is to export the tradition of Italian products, including non-dairy products. In fact, Granarolo has diversified its portfolio in recent years.

Gellify

GELLIFY is the first B2B innovation platform able to connect digital software start-ups to traditional businesses. GELLIFY provides access to investments, skills and networks, key factors in enabling start-ups to grow. It operates through three business units:

• GELLIFY, aimed at consolidating start-ups that have already shown traction on the market;
• GELLIFY AIR, aimed at innovation programmes developed by Italian companies and designed to generate a flow of innovation that links digital and traditional entrepreneurs with a focus on Industry 4.0 and Fintech;
• GELLIFY DIGITAL INVESTMENT, composed of a team of investors positioned alongside leading Italian venture capitalists with the ability to invest in start-ups.

Conserve Italia

Conserve Italia is a cooperative consortium with registered offices in San Lazzaro di Savena (BO), a leading Italian company in the food processing sector that unites 14,000 agricultural producers and processes over 600,000 tonnes of fruit, tomatoes and vegetables across 12 factories, with nine in Italy, two in France and one in Spain.
The total aggregated turnover of the Conserve Italia Group is approximately 900 million euro, 40% of which is generated by exports. Conserve Italia employs approximately 3,300 permanent and seasonal workers in Italy, and markets under a number of well-established Italian brands including Cirio, Valfrutta, Yoga and Derby Blue.

CAMST

CAMST is a cooperative established in Bologna in 1945 that brings the quality of home cooking to schools, businesses, hospitals, trade fairs, shopping centres and cities in Italy and abroad (Spain, Denmark and Germany) every day. The company combines traditional Italian cuisine with the innovation of a modern business as part of a constantly evolving approach, creating a business rooted in the past but with its sight set firmly on the future.

In 2017 the Group expanded its services to include facility management in order to offer clients a full-fledged service. The Group has a total turnover of 784 million Euro, employs 15 thousand workers and serves 130 million meals (2018 data).

Cuniola

“Cuniola Società Agricola a r.l., owned by the family of Alberto Vacchi, Chairman and CEO of Ima Spa and Chairman of Confindustria Emilia Area Centro, owns a 500-hectare agricultural site in San Martino in the province of Ferrara.”

Eurovo Group

The Eurovo Group is the European leader for the production and commercialisation of eggs and egg products. The company has been operating on the market for over sixty years and has been guided by the Lionello family since its foundation. Over time, the experience, passion and automation of processes has transformed this small company centred on manual egg-shelling into a leading entity in Europe with 10 million laying hens and 17 factories in Italy and abroad. The products of the Eurovo Group are the result of a complete and vertically integrated supply chain.

The company manages all of its production phases internally, from the production of animal feed to shelling, pasteurisation and the packaging and distribution of the end products. Its brands include Naturelle, Nonna Anita, Maia, Eurovo Service, Novissime, EPS, Liot and White Force.

University of Bologna

The University of Bologna has ancient origins: established in 1088, the institution was the first university in the western world. The university currently has 85,000 students and 219 degree courses, 70 of which are international, delivered across five campuses: Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini.
It has 33 departments, 47 PhD courses, 59 specialist schools, 91 first and second level Masters’ courses and an average of 11,000 research products per year The University of Bologna is Italy's leading higher education institution in terms of number of students involved in exchange programmes, both inbound and outbound.

Enea

ENEA is a public research institution specialised in the innovation and transfer of advanced technologies and services for businesses, public administrations and citizens. It has 14 research centres and laboratories with test facilities, cutting edge technological equipment and over 2500 researchers and technicians.
Its strengths include the energy, agri-food, energy efficiency, circular economy and sustainability sectors.

ART-ER

ART-ER is the consortium company of the Emilia-Romagna Region for innovation and technology transfer to businesses, universities and the Region.

It promotes industrial research as the main driver for sustainable economic development in harmony with growth and social welfare and collaborates with entrepreneurial associations to promote the development of strategies and actions combining research and business. An established innovation hub at a national and international level, AR-TER is working to transform Emilia-Romagna into a dynamic, inclusive and sustainable region.

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